Monday, March 22, 2010

Former Auburn coach and North Carolina basketball standout Jeff Lebo and former Charlotte 49ers coach Bobby Lutz are the top candidates for the head coaching vacancy at East Carolina, sources close to the hiring process confirmed to the Observer on Monday.

Lebo, who took the Tigers to one postseason tournament (NIT) in six seasons as coach at Auburn, is considered the top candidate, the sources said. One report from a radio station in the Greenville, N.C., area said Lebo has already been offered the job, but no agreement has been announced.

Lebo, a native of Carlisle, Pa., who played for North Carolina from 1985-88, began his college coaching career at Tennessee Tech.

Lutz, who was fired last week from Charlotte after 12 seasons as coach, had an interview with ECU athletics director Terry Holland last week. Lutz was 218-158 in 12 seasons with the 49ers, making five NCAA and three NIT appearances.

UPDATE: WRAL is reporting Lebo will be named as ECU's coach and officially introduced on Tuesday. Read the story here.

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comments:

Anonymous
said...

Please keep an eye on this site. I will report to the Charlotte Observer on what's happening with the Charlotte 49ner's search for a new coach as soon as I read about it in a community newspaper from some where in Idaho.

More attractive how? Because it is in a worse conference and hasn't posted a winning record since the mid-90s? Pay should be similar between the two, I'd bet Charlotte will pay more though. And Charlotte's roster next year should compete to be in the top 3 of the A10 (an achievement that is often rewarded with an NCAA tourny invite, something that can't be said about CUSA).

I'm not sure how it is more attractive other than the fact that nobody cares about ECU basketball so the new coach could be horrible and keep their job longer...

ECU is one of the worst jobs in college basketball. those on the list for the ECU job won't be on the Niner's list. That is why ECU was inteviewing the coach that Charlotte just let go. What a terrible post. Lets get an update on what Charlotte is doing when possible.

Have you ever thought about reporting on the coaches who are being speculated on for the UNCC job? Jim Utter may be the worst beat writer in the history of beat writers! His only sources are what he reads on other blogs and message boards. My kingdom for someone competent to cover 49er basketball.

In the writers defense, there are people who are who are interested in what is happening at ECU, not me personally but there are a few out there. As for ECU being a better job, last time I checked Charlotte was basketball program is in way better shape than ECUs and although they are in the A10 its still a lot better conference than CUSA in basketball.